Sunday's Coupon Preview!!!

Tomorrow is Sunday, which means the Sunday paper! I love it! To me, it's like Christmas morning every Sunday (even though I know what coupons will be in there)! The Sunday paper is where I get the majority of my coupons.

There will be two coupon inserts in the paper tomorrow: Red Plum (RP) and Smartsource (SS). It's not a great week for coupons, but there are some that I'm excited about. The ones that I like for this week are:

*Kelloggs Pop-Tarts 8 count or higher $1.00 off of 2 ($1.00/2) RP
*Bestlife Buttery Spread $1.00 off of 1 ($1.00/1) RP (This coupon can be used
for the Bestlife that is on sale this week at Food Lion for $.99 which equals
free butter!
*Folgers Coffee products 7oz or higher $1.00 off of 2 ($1.00/2) RP (This coupon can be used tomorrow at CVS (Folgers is Buy One Get One Free (BOGO) this week) to score some pretty cheap coffee)!
*Various Suave coupons in RP! There will be an Extra Care Bucks (ECB) deal going on at CVS starting tomorrow where you can get some pretty inexpensive Suave products (I'll do another blog post later today highlighting the deals for CVS next week).

To check out the complete list for all of the Red Plum and Smartsource coupons coming in the paper tomorrow, click here.

FREE Ziploc Back to School Gift Pack!!!

Here is a great promotion by Ziploc! The first 10,000 people to register will get the following items for FREE!!!

*One box of Ziploc Sandwich Bags (50 count)
*One box of Ziploc Storage Bags with Smart Zip Seal (25 count)
*One box of Ziploc Containers with Smart Snap Seal (small bowl)

This is one gift pack per household. Offer form must be filled out by July 30th. The gift packs will be mailed by October 15th.

Click here to receive your FREE Ziploc Back to School Gift Pack!!!

CVS-Look What I Got Saving Over 90%

I went to CVS last night to check out some deals. I ended up making a small purchase, saving over 90%, plus got more Extra Care Bucks back to save for next week's sale:) Here is a breakdown of my trip:

1 Milky Way $.50
2 CVS Pantyliners $1.00
1 BioTrue Contact Solution $2.99
1 Pantene Volume Gel $2.24 (clearanced 50% off)
1 Salsa Herb Garden $1.99 (clearanced 75% off)

Here are the coupons I used:

1 $.50 Milky Way from CRT scanner (Free chocolate is always a good thing!!!)
1 $1.00 off Pantene CVS store peelie
1 $2.00 off any Pantene Styler product manufacturer coupon (as you can see, I was able to use $3.00 in coupons for the Pantene that was only $2.24 which equaled OVERAGE for the Pantene (which is a Your Mileage May Vary or YMMV). The overage went towards the rest of my transaction.
1 $2.99 ECB reward from an earlier transaction of BioTrue
1 $1.00 ECB reward from an earlier transaction of CVS pantyliners

Total Out of Pocket (OOP) $1.65
Plus, I got back $2.99 ECB for BioTrue and $1.00 ECB for CVS pantyliners

**Sorry there is not a picture of what I got last night. I took one and then the batteries died in my camera. Gotta stock up on some new batteries :)

CVS 101

Words can't express the love I have for CVS! To think that four months ago, I hadn't set foot in a CVS in years. Now I'm in CVS probably two times four times a week. Before I started couponing, I always thought CVS was overpriced (that's why I never went in there). Once I learned the tricks and trades of extreme couponing, combined with the awesome Extra Care Bucks (ECB) deals, I have become unstoppable. I even have a cast on my left arm to prove it (I had put my 5 year old son in a shopping cart in CVS so I could shop peacefully and cheaply. When I went to get him out of the cart (left-handed, holding onto my coupon binder with my right hand), I pulled two ligaments in my left wrist. I've been in a cast for three weeks, have two more weeks to go).

Anyway, I digress. This post is to help you learn the tricks and trades of being a smart CVS shopper. I will do this in a question/answer format.

• What are Extra Care Bucks?
Extra Care Bucks (or ECB) are coupons that are rewarded to customer that have an Extra Care Bucks card through CVS by buying specified items. They will print out on the bottom of your receipt after you make a purchase. Extra Care Bucks can be used to purchase anything in CVS (with the exclusion of tobacco, alcohol, lottery tickets, postage stamps, or prescription drugs). Extra Care Bucks are only good for their face value and if your total purchase is less than the value of your Extra Care Bucks, you will not get change back or a new ECB rewarded to you. Extra Care Bucks do have expiration dates, typically four weeks after you receive your Extra Care Bucks (expiration date is printed on the bottom of the Extra Care Bucks reward).

• What is a CRT scanner?
A CRT scanner is a kiosk that is set up in CVS stores that produces store coupons for use in CVS when scanning your ECB Rewards card. You can scan your ECB card multiple times a day for different coupons. New store coupons are released every Monday. The CRT scanner can also be used to price-check an item. Simply scan the item under the scanner and it will produce the price for you.

• What is the CVS coupon policy?
At CVS, you can use one manufacturer coupon and one store coupon per item. This (in coupon lingo) is called stacking coupons. CVS also will accept internet printed (IP) coupons (some stores will not accept IP coupons because of the amount of fraudulent coupons reproduced). You can also use a Buy One Get One Free (BOGO) coupon on a BOGO store special, meaning you can get two items free. CVS does not accept competitor coupons (i.e. Target, Walgreens, or Rite Aid). Also you can use your ECB rewards combined with manufacturer and store coupons. Often, this will mean free or moneymaker (MM) items!

Example of a CVS purchasing scenario:
Here is a CVS purchase I made this week that combines the use of Extra Care
Bucks and Extra Care Buck deals for the week of 7/4/2010/-7/10/10.

•Biotrue Contact Lens Solution 2oz $2.99 (buy 1, get $2.99 in ECB)
•2 CVS Pantyliners 2/$1.00 (buy 2 CVS pantyliners for $1.00, get $1 in ECB)
•1 Diet Coke 20oz $1.79 (I know, I know, it was a little pricey but I was thirsty, plus I needed it to use up an ECB)
Total $6.02 (used $5 in ECB from last week), paid $1.02 out of pocket (OOP), got back $2.99 ECB for Biotrue, $1.00 ECB for CVS pantyliners.


This week is actually a slow week at CVS. The Biotrue and CVS Pantyliners are the only freebies available this week. As far as I know, they are limited to two per ECB card. The best way to do this is to make two seperate transactions. Each transaction with 2 CVS pantyliners and 1 2oz bottle of Biotrue. If you don't have any ECB available, you will have to pay cash out of pocket (OOP) for the first transaction, then you can roll your ECB from the first transaction onto the second transaction to pay for it (you will only have to pay tax OOP). Then you will have $3.99 worth of ECB to hold onto for next weeks sales!

I am heading to CVS tonight, so I will report back with my purchases (hoping I can find some rocking clearance (which CVS has quite often))!!!

Woo Hoo, Free Butter at Food Lion Starting 7/7/10

Freebie alert! Freebie alert! Starting tomorrow, Bestlife Buttery Spread or Spray is on sale at Food Lion for just $.99 when using your MVP card. There is currently a Food Lion store coupon booklet out called, "Cool Off This Summer with Dairy". It was located in the frozen food section of my Food Lion. In this coupon book, there was $1 off any Bestlife Buttery Spread or Spray, making it FREE! As I mentioned, this is a store coupon, which has a limit of one coupon per customer, per day.

Happy Shopping!

Two Awesome Deals at Food Lion Through July 6, 2010

Only a day and a half left to get some awesome deals at Food Lion before this sale is over. Some of my favorites are:

Buy five jars of Kraft Mayonnaise for $5

To work this deal, buy five jars of Kraft Mayo in one transaction ($2.00 each), then you will save $5 instantly off of your order. This equals to only $1 for each jar! No coupons are needed, just your Food Lion MVP Card :) To make this deal even better, there are some store coupons available in some Food Lions where you can save $2 off of fresh produce when you buy 2 select Kraft items. Kraft Mayonnaise is one of those select items :) You can use two of these produce coupons since you are buying five jars. So you can get five jars of Kraft Mayonnaise and $4 worth of fresh produce for $5! I found these coupons near a display of Kraft Mayonnaise.

5 containers of Cool Whip for FREE

To work this deal, simply buy 5 containers of Cool Whip in one transaction. They are $1 each. So 5 Cool Whips will equal $5. Cool Whip is part of a frozen dessert promotion, where when you buy 5, you will save $5 instantly on your order. $5-$5=FREE! Once again, no coupons are needed, just your Food Lion MVP card :)

To see the rest of this week's ad, click here

Freebies From 6/28-7/5

I wanted to share with my readers what I have gotten free in the last week. Maybe this will give you some inspiration to start some extreme couponing :)

I'm sure that many of you are wondering how I got this free. So I will break this down for you.

2 packs of Dentyne Gum (Wal-Mart) $.97 Used 2 $1.00 off any Dentyne Gum coupon
6 packs of Dentyne Gum (CVS) $.88 Used 6 $1.00 off any Dentyne Gum coupon
3 packs of Pampers Wipes (Wal-Mart) $1.97 Used 3 $2.00 off any Pampers Wipes 60ct. or larger coupon
2 packs of Stayfree Maxi Pads (CVS) $3.99 Used 1 Buy One Get One Free (BOGO) Stayfree Products Coupon (Stayfree was BOGO at CVS last week).
2 Colgate Toothpastes $.88 (CVS) Used 2 $1.00 off any Colgate coupon
1 John Frieda shampoo $3.00 (Wal-Mart) Used 1 $3.00 off any John Frieda Root Awakenings coupon

The other items pictured (2 more John Frieda products, 1 BioTrue contact solution, assorted Schick razors, and 2 CVS pantyliners) were free from CVS using either Extra Care Bucks (ECB) or a combination of coupons and Extra Care Bucks. I will do a CVS 101 post in the upcoming days to explain how to combine extreme couponing and Extra Care Bucks to get multiple free items from CVS each week.

I plan to have a freebie picture and round-up post each week to highlight what I got for free that week. I also plan to highlight free items or nearly free items as soon as I find out about them.

Thanks for checking out this post! Hope it brings about some inspiration!